How to Calculate Your Age in China My friend asked me whether Chinese lunar calendar adjusts every few years to align it with the solar calendar and whether Chinese were considered one year old at bir

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How to Calculate Your Age in China My friend asked me whether Chinese lunar calendar adjusts every few years to align it with the solar calendar and whether Chinese were considered one year old at birth. They were both interesting questions. However as a Chinese, I couldn't answer them correctly, which I was quite ashamed of. So I did some searching online. There are two kinds of age in China. One is called the actual age, the other is the nominal age. The actual age is calculated by how many birthdays you have celebrated in solar calendar. It can be figured by months also, e.g. Miss A was born on Oct 7th,1993, so she was one month old on Nov. 7th, 1993, and 1 year old on Oct 7th, 1994. The nominal age is figured by how many Spring Festivals you have celebrated in lunar calendar and the baby is considered 1 year old at birth. For example, Miss A was already 1 year old on Oct. 7th, 1993 by nominal age;when celebrating the 1994 Spring Festival(Feb 10th, 1994), she was already 2 year old. The actual age method originates from the west and was first accepted in China in 1912 when the Republic of China was found. It is easy to calculate and applies to international standard. Meanwhile, the nominal age is still used in China, mostly by elder citizens. Especially when they spare no effort to urge you to get married, they will calculate your nominal age which usually appears larger than actual age.... Let's see how big the difference may be: say Mr.B was born on Feb 11th, 2002. The 2002 Spring Festival is on Feb 12th, the next day of his birthday, while the 2003 Spring Festival is on Feb 1st. Between Feb 1st and Feb 10th in 2003, Mr.B was considered 3 years old by nominal age, but 0 year old by actual age since he hadn't celebrated his birthday yet. So the difference between the actual age and the nominal age could be three years old ! As for Chinese lunar calender, it does adjust itself to align it with solar calendar, which means it is not simply based on lunar calendar, but on a combination of solar and lunar activities. There are two types of year: one is common year featured by 354 or 355 days(12 months), the other is leap year or intercalary year featured by 383 or 384 days, for it has 13 months. By calculation, our ancestors decide to put 7 leap months in 19 tropical years. Therefore, Chinese lunar calender could align with solar calendar. Actually, it is called Han Calender (汉历) consistent with 汉字(Chinese characters) and 汉文化(Chinese culture) etc Thanks : )

6 de fev de 2014 17:02

Correções · 10

How to Calculate Your Age in China

My friend asked me whether the Chinese lunar calendar adjusts every few years to align it with the solar calendar and whether Chinese people were considered to be one year old at birth. They were both interesting questions. However as a Chinese, I couldn't answer them correctly, which I was quite ashamed of. So I did some searching online.

There are two kinds of age in China. One is called the actual age, the other is called the nominal age. The actual age is calculated by how many birthdays you have celebrated in solar calendar. It can be figured by months also. e.g. For example, Miss A was born on Oct 7th,1993, so she was one month old on Nov. 7th, 1993, and 1 year old on Oct 7th, 1994. The nominal age is figured by how many Spring Festivals you have celebrated in the lunar calendar, and the baby is considered to be 1 year old at birth. For example, Miss A was already 1 year old on Oct. 7th, 1993 by nominal age; when celebrating the 1994 Spring Festival(Feb 10th, 1994), she was already 2 year old.

The actual age method originates from the west, and was first accepted in China in 1912 when the Republic of China was founded. It is easy to calculate and applies conforms to the international standard. Meanwhile, the nominal age is still used in China, mostly by elder citizens. Especially when they spare no effort to urge you to get married, they will calculate your nominal age which usually appears larger than your actual age....

Let's see how big the difference may might be: say Mr. B was born on Feb 11th, 2002. The 2002 Spring Festival is on Feb 12th, the next day of day after his birthday, while the 2003 Spring Festival is on Feb 1st. Between Feb 1st and On Feb 10th, in 2003, Mr.B was considered 3 years old by nominal age, but 0 years old by actual age, since he hadn't celebrated his birthday yet. So the difference between the actual age and the nominal age could be three years old !

As for the Chinese lunar calender, it does adjust itself to align it with the solar calendar, which means it is not simply based on the moon lunar calendar, but on a combination of solar and lunar activities. There are two types of year: one type is called a common year featured by with 354 or 355 days(12 months), the other is a leap year or an intercalary year featured by containing 383 or 384 days, for it has 13 months. By calculation, our ancestors decided to put 7 leap months in 19 tropical years. Therefore, the Chinese lunar calender could align with the solar calendar. Actually, it is called the Han Calender (汉历) consistent with 汉字(Chinese characters) and 汉文化(Chinese culture), etc.

Thanks : )

很有意思, 谢谢！

7 de fevereiro de 2014

<em>Not much to add to Daniel's correction.</em>

How to Calculate Your Age in China

My friend asked me whether the Chinese lunar calendar adjusts every few years to align it with the solar calendar and whether Chinese were considered one year old at birth. They were both interesting questions. However as a Chinese, I couldn't answer them correctly, which I was quite ashamed of. So I did some searching online.

There are two kinds of age in China. One is called the actual age, the other is the nominal age. The actual age is calculated by how many birthdays you have celebrated in solar calendar. It can be figured calculated1* by months also, e.g. Miss A was born on Oct 7th,1993, so she was one month old on Nov. 7th, 1993, and 1 year old on Oct 7th, 1994. The nominal age is figured calculated by how many Spring Festivals you have celebrated in lunar calendar and the baby is considered 1 year old at birth. For example, Miss A was already 1 year old on Oct. 7th, 1993 by nominal age;when celebrating the 1994 Spring Festival(Feb 10th, 1994), she was already 2 years old 2*.

The actual age method originates from the west and was first accepted in China in 1912 when the Republic of China was founded. It is easy to calculate and applies to international standards. Meanwhile, the nominal age is still used in China, mostly by elder citizens. Especially when they spare are sparing no effort to urge you to get married, they will calculate your nominal age which usually appears larger than the actual age....

Let's see how big the difference may be: say Mr.B was born on Feb 11th, 2002. The 2002 Spring Festival is on Feb 12th, the next day of day after his birthday, while the 2003 Spring Festival is on Feb 1st. Between Feb 1st and Feb 10th in 2003, Mr.B was considered 3 years old by nominal age, but 0 year old by actual age since he hadn't celebrated his birthday yet. So the difference between the actual age and the nominal age could be three years old !

As for the Chinese lunar calender, it does adjust itself to align it with solar calendar, which means it is not simply based on lunar calendar, but on a combination of solar and lunar activities. There are two types of year: one is a common year featured by which has 354 or 355 days(12 months), the other is leap year or intercalary year featured by which has 383 or 384 days, for it has 13 months. By calculation, our ancestors decided to put 7 leap months in 19 tropical years. Therefore, the Chinese lunar calender could align with solar calendar. Actually, it is called the Han Calender (汉历) consistent with 汉字(Chinese characters) and 汉文化(Chinese culture) etc

Thanks : )

1* You could use 'figured out' but I think the register is too informal.

2* or 'a 2 year old'.

9 de fevereiro de 2014

Thank you so much, Sheilagh! I thought "Chinese"could be used as a noun. Thanks for correcting me : ) I will pay attention to it.

10 de fevereiro de 2014

This was very interesting to read! I just have one thing to add to the corrections others have already made. In English you would not say "As a Chinese" but rather "As a Chinese person," "As a Chinese woman," etc. "Chinese" is an adjective in English. Most nationalities in English have both an adjective and a noun, for example, Spanish (adjective) and Spaniard (noun). There isn't really a noun for a Chinese person in English, so we usually just say Chinese person, Chinese woman, etc. Technically "Chinaman" is a correct word, but you wouldn't say it; I believe this word was used a lot in the past, but today it is not common and it may in fact be considered offensive. I hope this makes sense. Great job!

9 de fevereiro de 2014